THE BIRDS OF LONDON. Q277 
contrasting so well with its black coat, always makes this bird a 
conspicuous object. Shakespeare calls it— 
“ The Ouzel-cock, so black of hue, 
With orange-tawny bill.” 
And Drayton :— 
“ The Woozel near at hand that hath a golden bill.” 
Rine Ovzex, Turdus torquatus.—A rare casual. Seen occa- 
sionally on migration in the Regent’s Park (Bartlett, Proc. Zool. 
Soc., 1863), and Yarrell has recorded one being caught in a trap 
in a garden at Lambeth. 
HeEpceEsparrow, Accentor modularis.—Resident, and not un- 
common, breeding in our parks and gardens. There was a nest 
last year in Hamilton Gardens, Park Lane. 
ReEDBREAST, Hrythaca rubecula.— Resident. This universal 
favourite, the earliest bird in the morning and latest at night, is 
heard in all our parks and gardens, but, curiously, it is much shyer 
in London than in the country; although it may be found in 
almost every small shrubbery in Kensington Gardens, it keeps at 
a distance, and allows no near approach. Its song enlivens us 
almost all the year; even in winter, when all other birds are mute, 
it still sings on. ‘The Robin has been the theme of many a poet, 
and few lines are more beautiful than Rogers’s ‘Epitaph on a 
Robin Redbreast’ :— 
“ Tread lightly here, for here ’tis said, 
When piping winds are hushed around, 
A small note wakes from under ground, 
Where now his tiny bones are laid ; 
No more in lone and leafless groves, 
With ruffled wings and faded breast, 
His friendless, homeless spirit roves ;— 
Gone to the world where birds are blest, 
Where never cat glides o’er the green, 
Or schoolboy’s giant form is seen, 
But love, and joy, and smiling spring 
Inspire their little souls to sing.” 
NicurinGaLe, Daulias luscinia.—A casual visitor. Some few 
years back this ‘‘ sweetest songster of the grove” would have 
been placed amongst the regular summer visitants to London. 
Not many years since, amongst the favourite resorts of this bird 
